Sevmash shipyard does not confirm transfer of Severodvinsk sub to Navy

ARKHANGELSK, December 27, /ITAR-TASS/. The Sevmash defence shipyard did not confirm media reports saying that the Yasen-class nuclear submarine Severodvinsk (Project 885) would be transferred to the Navy on December 30.

In November, the shipyard said that the submarine had completed the contractor’s sea trials commenced in 2011 and started state trials preceding the transfer to the Navy.

By that time, the submarine had made 14 sea voyages lasting more than 222 days, sailed tens of thousands of nautical miles, and performed over a hundred of dives and emersions. The contractor’s trials confirmed the craft’s excellent performance characteristics. “The Severodvinsk is the most advanced and the quietest domestic submarine,” Sevmash specialists say.

Sevmash is building seven new Yasen-class multirole nuclear submarines, which are to be handed over to the Navy by 2020.

Last year, the Severodvinsk fired the newest supersonic cruise missile five times. The submerged submarine fired the newest supersonic cruise missile at a surface target from the White Sea in five successive successful launches of a new cruise supersonic missile conducted as part of the Kalibr rocket system tests.

The fourth generation nuclear-powered submarine Severodvinsk started mooring trials at the Sevmash shipyard in 2010.

The Project 885 submarine was designed by the Malakhit design bureau in St. Petersburg. The Sevmash shipyard launched the project in 1993. The protracted period of construction was caused by economic difficulties, and also by the need to design a new architecture of the hull and armaments.

Russia intends to produce six more vessels of this type. In July 2009, Sevmash started building a second Project 885 submarine named Kazan.

The Severodvinsk is the first in the Graney class (Yasen in Russian classification) of nuclear powered attack submarines. A source in the Russian Defence Ministry told Itar-Tass earlier that at least six submarines of the Graney class would be built within the next eight years. Construction of the second submarine in the series, the Kazan, started in July 2009.

Vessels of the Graney class will be the most silent submarines in the world. They will have a maximum speed of 16 knots surfaced and 31 knots submerged. They will be 119 metres long, 13.5 metres wide and 9.4 metres high.

According to Russia's Naval Doctrine, submarines of this class will become the main multirole nuclear vehicles in the Navy.